It's an Earthling Thing
by Wr3n
Summary: A specially engineered surprise, and some simple quiet time spent groundside… *OnEsHoT*


You stand, a mere arm's length ahead, on the lush and verdant edge of the knoll - the edges of your dark armour glinting, sporadically, in the sunlight when you move.

Leaning on the outer hull of the mako, I simply stare at you, while you silently use your hardsuit's inner systems to scan the distance between us and the 'anomaly' our orbital scans picked up - and, I smile at you, smugly, as soon as you suddenly turn around, regarding me with blues eyes widened from surprise and excitement.

"Is that…?" you wonder falteringly, disbelievingly.

Inside my sealed helmet, I laugh. "Yep," I say smilingly, "That's our 'anomaly', alright… a prothean pyramid."

I instantly bite my lip as you incoherently sputter an exclamation.

You place a gloved hand on your helmet, slender fingers worrying - as though you wish you could rub at your crest in bemusement - and you stare at me, enigmatically, for a long moment.

"You knew… didn't you?" you suddenly ask.

Inside my helmet, I secretly smile at your perceptiveness. "Well… I may have looked over a few of the garbled topographical pictures… yeah."

You huff out a laugh at me, uncertainly. "With this planet's violent weather activity," you say, shaking your helmeted head, "it must have taken you hours to **visually** decipher what the anomaly was…"

I blurt out a laugh, and shrug my shoulder plates. "What can I say? I've… got good eyes," I mumble.

You laugh uncertainly again, and then begin to wring your gloved hands, as you stare at me. "This is meant to be a… a sort of present for me… isn't it?" you ask.

I nod, definitely, at you. "Yes, it is."

You suddenly look away from me, abashedly. "Thank you, Shepard," you say quietly, seriously, "No one has ever… arranged something like this for me before."

I stare at you, warmly and quietly, for a moment, and when my eyes finally catch yours, I dip my helmet at you. "You're welcome, T'Soni," I say, smiling widely.

You begin to sputter again, shyly, but eventually stop yourself by gesturing with a gloved hand toward the nearby prothean pyramid. "I… can we…?"

Inside my helmet, my smile widens even further. "Yeah, absolutely," I say, "But, we've only got about 2 ½ hours more groundside time before a storm heads our way - I want to be safely back on the Normandy before then - so we've only got a little over an hour to explore your pyramid… is that okay?" I ask.

You nod your helmeted head at me, enthusiastically. "Yes, of course!" you immediately say, "That is more than enough time to perform a few preliminary scans and procedures."

I smile at you. "Okay, great," I exclaim happily, "Let's get to it then, Doctor."

"Wait - please," you say suddenly, reaching out a gloved hand to touch my plated forearm, stilling me from moving along any further. "What is the common custom among humans… when they receive gifts from one another?" you ask, curiously.

Cocking my helmeted head, I frown and think for a moment. "Uh…" I murmur, uncertainly, "Well, we don't really have **set** customs about gift-exchanging, anymore." I rub at the back of my braced neck. "I guess," I say, "most people just say 'thank you'. Some people start planning right away to give a gift in return - personally, I don't like that - but, really, I suppose it just depends on the person that's been given the gift…?"

After a second, I instinctually touch at your gloved hand lingering on my forearm, and I squeeze at your slender fingers. "T'Soni," I murmur, "Liara, I'm not expecting anything in return… that's not why I give gifts… The look in your eyes," I try to explain, "the feeling that I got from giving - that was satisfying to me… You know what I mean?"

After a silent moment - with our eyes meeting one another's coyly - you take a step closer toward me. Suddenly, our armour's breastplate's clack together awkwardly, and you press yourself into me, sweetly winding your arms about my waist. Somehow, you fit your cumbersome helmet, snugly, onto my shoulder plates, and your armoured arms pressure me closer, and closer, while you hug me tightly… After a surprised second, I wrap my own arms around your slender form, and gently squeeze you back.

"Thank you, Shepard," you say again, quietly.

Inside my helmet, I smile pathetically - beneath my breastplate my heart hammers crazily while I hold you, and… I'm secretly glad that you can't possibly hear it or feel it. "You're welcome," I reply at last.

After a tiny moment more, you slowly pull from my arms, and direct a shyly smiling look at me. "We had better…" you begin, falteringly.

"Ah, hell…" I mutter, nodding understandingly, "…I know. Let's go, then."

While we finally turn together, and gradually start to make our way toward the door of the mako, I wonder something. "Hey, as a prothean archaeologist, do you get to… claim this pyramid, or name it, or anything?" I ask.

You laugh abashedly. "I suppose I could…" you murmur thoughtfully, smilingly, "I have actually never been in a situation where I could exercise that right, before."

Inside my helmet, my eyebrows lift. "Huh - neat."

"Perhaps, the pyramid should be named after the **true** discoverer?" you suggest, stepping aside as I open the hatch door of the mako.

I look at you, blankly, and brace my gloved hands on my armoured hips, while the hatch slowly rises, hissing open. "I… don't think that's a good idea, T'Soni." I reply.

"Why?" you wonder innocently, "People do not often hear your first name, and I think a pyramid built by the-,"

"Liara," I promptly interrupt, laughing deprecatingly, " **I** don't even like my name, okay? There'd be no honour gained for the protheans if they were party to it, either. The running joke in my family is that I joined the Alliance so people would only call me 'Shepard'… Just…" I plead, "I don't want my name attached to **your** discovery, alright?"

Before entering the mako, you turn and fix me with an utterly confused look. "Why is Queena an unlikeable human name?" you wonder.

I laugh and shake my helmeted head. "It's… an earthling thing," I reply.


End file.
